Posted on 02/12/2014 12:38:55 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
NASA is now working with private companies to take the first steps in exploring the moon for valuable resources like helium 3 and rare earth metals.
Initial proposals are due tomorrow for the Lunar Cargo Transportation and Landing by Soft Touchdown program (CATALYST). One or more private companies will win a contract to build prospecting robots, the first step toward mining the moon.
The contract will be a "no funds exchanged" Space Agreement Act, which means the government will not be directly funding the effort, but will receive NASA support. Final proposals are due on March 17th, 2014. NASA has not said when it will announce the winner.
NASA works with private companies that service the International Space Station, and those partnerships have gone well. Faced with a skeleton budget, the agency is looking for innovative ways to cooperate with the private sector in order to continue research and exploration, as it did recently with a crowdsourcing campaign to improve its asteroid-finding algorithms. That campaign was launched with another private company, Planetary Resources, the billionaire-backed asteroid mining company.
According to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty of the United Nations, countries are prohibited from laying claim to the moon. The possibility of lunar mining and the emergence of private space companies has triggered a debate over lunar property rights, however.
"There’s a strong case for developing international law in this area because in 1967 it was not envisaged that anyone other than nation states would be able to explore the moon," Ian Crawford, a planetary science professor, told The Telegraph. "Clearly that is changing now and there is a case for developing the outer space treaty to include private organizations that may wish to explore the moon."
Why? Just talk to China. They’ll be the ones better able to do this with any interested company. NASA is too concerned with diversity and social justice to do anything that can make money or is even scientific.
Thanks momtothree.
“Mine the moon.” How much does it cost to bring a pound of helium back to Earth? Is there some mineral that is so valuable that it pays its way on the space mission?
lol
anyone who thinks the environmental weenies will allow this is kidding themselves
The key factor would be final cost of production. Does it make sense to believe that it would cost less to travel to the moon, mine substances and return safely with them than to obtain them here on Earth?
Shouldn’t NASA be accepting applications only from companies that want to spread Islam?
Put a giant Coca Cola logo, visible from earth, up there. Let Coke pay for the missions.
NASA’s liberal... so is this a ‘pay to play’ Chicago type corruption?
Ahyes...there it is.
If I could put a company together to set up an automated titanium smelter on the moon, I’d get started tomorrow.
And I wouldn’t stop to ask NASA’s permission either. I’d just do it. Because... How would they stop me?
With the space shuttle... oh, wait.
There was a reason I needed to resign my Space Shuttle Door Gunner commission....
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